Listen: Palm “Composite”

Palm is one of those bands that defy categorization—they’ve been called experimental, art, math, post-post-post rock—but their latest track “Composite” kind of sounds like a backmasked Beach Boys song, or a Christmas song deconstructing under an identity crisis, or the hand of David Lynch—in a really good way. The vocal section of the track seems familiar, vaguely festive, like you’re hearing it out of a Muzak just out of reach, until the track stutters and shakes under the sound that gives it life. The overall effect is like the moment when you feel yourself latching onto a memory, begin to feel the recollected moment in its totality, but then lose it just as quickly as it came. That’s typical of Palm, to throw you for a loop just when you feel like you might be catching on.

“Composite” is off of the upcoming LP Rock Island, the band’s second full-length release. They recorded the album in a farmhouse upstate, piece by piece, but there’s a disjointed harmony within its fractured and largely solitary inception.